Italian Jam Tart

(Music to listen to while preparing the crostata  - Bryan Adams' HD, The Best of Me)

A very popular Italian dessert is the crostata. This is like a big jam tart and was not part of my repertoire of cakes and desserts when I first came to Italy. I soon got to discover how delicious it is.

When my children were small I was very aware of the responsibility of giving them healthy food. I got down to the business of nourishing meals rather than cordon bleu. That doesn't mean that only healthy food got into my supermarket trolley. My daughter reminded me today of the oven chips with ketchup inside that I had a thing about. Once my son and I munched our way through what felt like hundreds of chocolate rolls just so we could get a wigwam with the points. On the whole however I was quite scrupulus about the quality of their meals.

I bought a cookbook way back in 1984 that I still use today. It is called Mille ricette per vivere sani, "A thousand recipes for a healthy life". My favourite recipe for Crostata comes from there.

Crostata

1 pie dish with 22 cm diameter

250 g  flour

125g butter - softened

100g sugar

1 whole egg and 2 yolks, beaten lightly

Your favourite jam, up to a whole jar

Put the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter cut in pieces. Rub in gently until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and mix gently. Make a well in the centre and add the egg mixture. Work together carefully until it has formed a ball. Roll out on a floured surface. Use two thirds of the pastry to line the pie dish. Either butter the pie dish well or line with grease-proof paper.
Cover with the  jam , making sure to leave a border. Roll out the remaining pastry, cut into strips to make a lattice pattern. As it's near Valentine's Day, I made heart shapes.
Bake in the oven at 180 for about 35 minutes.

This is perfect after minestrone or any substantial soup or for breakfast for people in a hurry. My brother was shocked, when he first came to stay, to discover we sometimes had cake for breakfast. He was lost without his All-Bran.  Well you could always add a few prunes ...